The 11 best dating shows on Netflix to watch now

Things are heating up on our watchlists.

All's fair in love, war, and reality television, and the shows on this list prove this adage true time and time again. Couples have battled it out for decades in televised game shows, but giving strangers a pathway to fall in love in with each other in front of the world is a concept that's only recently taken hold.

Shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette helped set the mold, ushering in a new era of romantic reality TV with a competition component. And while both of these series are still churning out new seasons, they now share the ranks with hits like Love Island, Too Hot to Handle, and more. To find out which of Netflix's dating shows EW has fallen for, keep reading for our guide for the 11 best dating shows on the platform right now.

Ainori Love Wagon: Asian Journey (2018)

Netflix’s spinoff of the long-running Japanese dating show, which debuted in 1999, finds seven men and women grouped on a pink bus traveling through Asia. They arrive as strangers tasked with coupling up before the Love Wagon loops back to Japan. On the way, they explore tourist destinations and far-flung locales.

Ainori Love Wagon is sort of like Terrace House meets one of those BBC travel documentaries where a nice little granny shows you around a quaint village. Asian Journey finds a fine balance between juicy yet good-natured conflict between participants and an amiable rambling quality that gives the travelog structure a bit of unpredictability. —Declan Gallagher

Where to watch Ainori Love Wagon: Asian Journey: Netflix

Dating Around (2019–2020)

Netflix’s first original dating series, Dating Around is the pioneer that forged the path for other titles on this list. The show lasted two seasons, and every episode follows one person as they embark on five different blind dates. There is no competition element, but the hope is that the person dating around will enjoy one of the dates enough to prompt a second encounter. 

With only 12 episodes available between the two seasons, Dating Around is a fast and fun binge. While technically a dating show, the series feels almost documentary-esque in its focused observation of its subjects as they wade into the dating pool, and try to get comfortable with blind dating. —Ilana Gordon

Where to watch Dating Around: Netflix

Related: Who's still together from season 2 of Netflix's Dating Around?

Indian Matchmaking (2020–present)

This series sees esteemed matchmaker Sima Taparia travel across the globe, assisting Indian couples in every port with their impending arranged marriages while reimagining the traditional custom with modern variants. One of Netflix’s best globe-trotting dating shows, Indian Matchmaking offers sympathetic, largely humanist portraits of young couples forced together by their parents and societal norms more than genuine affection. That said, some surprising pairs initially appear trepidatious but warm up to one another and, sometimes, find that they’re each other’s perfect companion. —D.G.

Where to watch Indian Matchmaking: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Related: Indian Matchmaking creator talks controversy and Emmy nomination: 'Almost no one said it's inaccurate'

Love Is Blind (2020–present)

This terrifically entertaining twist on the dating show formula asks contestants to mingle, fall in love, and get engaged all without ever meeting in person or seeing what the other looks like. Love Is Blind is, more often than not, a surprisingly warm testament to the power of chemistry and the importance of personality over physicality. It doesn’t always work out, as you might expect, but the series has a much bigger heart and more self-aware participants than the synopsis may imply. —D.G.

Where to watch Love Is Blind: Netflix

Related: Love Is Blind season 5's Chris talks love triangle with Johnie and Izzy

Love Island USA (2019–present)

The American version of the British juggernaut series sees a group of randy singles banished to an island where they must mingle, compete in challenges, and become the last couple standing to receive $100,000. The subsequent pairings are made for love, friendship, or simply the hope of winning the game.

As if falling in love wasn’t hard enough, this series ups the ante with even more mind games and treachery than the average first month of dating. At its heart more of a competition program than a dating show, Love Island gets a surprising amount of mileage from its uncanny couplings and turns of fortune which are, at times, genuinely shocking. —D.G.

Where to watch Love Island USA: Netflix

Cast: Ariana Madix

Related: Ariana Madix replaces Sarah Hyland as Love Island USA host

Love on the Spectrum (2022–present)

A delightfully warm-hearted series following people with autism seeking connection, Love on the Spectrum eschews competition for an unobtrusive look at real people struggling with romance and friendships. The original Australian version and its newer U.S. counterpart are some of the most authentic — and certainly the least staged — reality dating shows, often content to let its subjects do the talking and guide the format. Though it concerns people on the spectrum, you might find yourself surprised at how relatable and all-encompassing their experiences with love can be. —D.G.

Where to watch Love on the Spectrum: Netflix

Related: See the trailer for Love on the Spectrum, Netflix docu-series about dating on the autism spectrum

Perfect Match (2023–present)

This is The Avengers of Netflix dating shows. It combines fan-favorite contestants from other series (Love Is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, et al.) who head to a secluded island villa (where else?) to engage in “compatibility challenges” while coupling and conniving their way to the finish line. Perfect Match is perfect entertainment: breezy, sexy, endlessly bingeable, and often laugh-out-loud funny in a genuine way rather than a a cheesy one. —D.G.

Where to watch Perfect Match: Netflix

Related: Perfect Match finale shockers: Here's which couples ended up together and who won

Sexy Beasts (2021)

If you ever watched The Masked Singer and thought, “I wish I could date one of those things,” or watched Love Is Blind and said, “But I wish they were furries,” well…here’s the show for you. Here, contestants don elaborate masks resembling lifelike animals and other creatures so that their potential partner’s first impression is based on love, not looks.

Hosted by Rob Delaney, who properly captures the ironic tone of this occasionally jaw-dropping series, Sexy Beasts corners an untapped market of the dating competition game and hangs on for dear life. Like all of the best examples of these shows, it’ll often surprise you with its compassion. However, the greatest fun comes from watching these people try to navigate potentially awkward romantic situations in heavy prosthetics. —D.G.

Where to watch Sexy Beasts: Netflix

Cast: Rob Delaney

Related: Netflix's Sexy Beasts remake is just as disturbing as you'd expect

Single's Inferno (2021–present)

This riveting South Korean dating show strands hip, big-city singles on a desolate island dubbed Inferno, where there is no technology and they must forage for food and water. Their objective is to escape to another island, Paradise, which contains all of the comfortable amenities they desire — but they can only do so after they couple up. If that’s not an incentive to get busy, we’re unsure what is.

The idea to combine Survivor with a dating competition is a sharp one, and Single’s Inferno makes more of that fusion than other series with a similar angle. It especially benefits from a likable cast that’s interesting without resorting to petty, exhausting game-playing. —D.G.

Where to watch Single’s Inferno: Netflix

Too Hot to Handle (2020–present)

This saucy British entry gathers a group of young, swinging singles with a knack for short, sweet relationships and throws them on a deserted island for a month. If they hope to win the $200,000 prize, they must test their chemistry, perhaps fall in love, and (the kicker) remain celibate.

As with all the best British reality shows, Too Hot to Handle is packed both with saucy double entendres (it’s hosted by an AI hazard cone, for one) and seemingly determined contestants who are never afraid to speak exactly what’s on their mind. The show is at times jaw-droppingly ribald in that trademark Isles manner, and it unfailingly parades out a diverse and entertaining cast over its multiple seasons. —D.G.

Where to watch Too Hot to Handle: Netflix

Related: Netflix's Too Hot to Handle was inspired by iconic Seinfeld episode 'The Contest'

The Ultimatum: Queer Love (2023)

This “queer-centric” (and far superior) spinoff of Netflix’s The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On asks five queer couples to decide whether they want to get married or split up for good. To test their connection, all participants become singles in the same dating pool, engaging in a sort of swingers scenario wherein they move in with a new boo for two weeks before reuniting with their original partner. Things predictably get messy from there.

It’s rather astonishing to see the number of seemingly healthy couples (and some not) who crumble at the mere mention of marriage (because love definitely lasts when it’s foisted upon you). On the other hand, there are some participants who genuinely renew your faith in love. —D.G.

Where to watch The Ultimatum: Queer Love: Netflix

Related: Here are all the newly formed couples on The Ultimatum: Queer Love

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.